Kanto Revisited: Rewrite
by Lygatto-Un-Sorceror
Summary: After Ash's Sinnoh journey, he decided to take a break from challenging Pokémon gyms to learn more about the Pokémon that he currently had and level them up some more before challenging the gyms again. This tale starts after his break was over…


After Ash was done guzzling his breakfast down at a breakneck pace, he set his cutlery down and looked to his mother and said, "Mum, it's time."

Delia looked at her son and said, "I know," having prepared for the moment, but still feeling sad to see him go, after having so much time with him this time. As Ash went up to his room to get dressed in the gear that he bought, she thought, ' _Well, at least_ this time _he's more prepared than the first time that he went around Kanto. Since he told me that he'll be taking along more than just Pikachu this time I'll know he'll be safe too. I just hope some floozy doesn't get her claws dug into him,_ ' completely overlooking that she herself had been a participant in a shotgun wedding, though she had been with Ash's father for a few years by that point.

When he walked through the room again, he was wearing a black three-quarter length light coat that had two clip-closed pockets on both breasts and a pair of angled pockets on the side over a royal blue v-neck shirt. He was also wearing black jeans and blue and black sneakers. The back of the coat had six slots for pokéballs, to cover for the fact that the wearer wouldn't be able to have easy-access to a regular pokébelt. Soon after he had started on his break, Ash had abandoned his hat, as his spiky hair made it uncomfortable to keep it on. As he left he said, "See ya later Mum," over his shoulder and swung his backpack over his shoulder as he left through the front door.

A sad smile appeared on Delia's face as she saw the image of Adrian descend over Ash's as he had left the exact same way all those years ago. She went out onto the patio and called out, "Bye Honey! Be sure to…" as Ash exited the garden gate.

"Mu-umm! I'm eighteen!" Ash exclaimed, cutting his mother off before she could yell the embarrassing sentence so that the whole of Pallet Town could hear it. "You don't have to tell me _THAT!_ " then he saw the look on his mother's face and sighed and said, "Sure, whatever," and turned left to go to Professor Oak's Lab.

Twenty-five minutes later, Ash arrived at Professor Oak's Lab and knocked on the door. To Ash's surprise, it wasn't Professor Oak that opened the door. It was Gary, who had only stopped in at Pallet Town to visit his grandfather on his way to Viridian City. He said, "Hey Ash, what's up?"

Ash said, "Gary! What are you doing here? I thought that you were still over in the Sinnoh Region, studying with Professor Rowan."

"That's old news Ash. I finished _that_ last year. I recently won a tournament run by regional professors in conjunction with the Pokémon league and was awarded the Viridian City Gym."

"The…wait! Why didn't _I_ know about that tournament?"

"Who knows?" Gary asked, honestly confounded as to why his long-time friend and rival _hadn't_ been invited. "I have tried to look into that, but…" Gary bit his lip.

Ash sighed and said, "Well, I suppose that that's in the past anyway. For now…"

"Yeah, why _did_ you come here?"

"I'm going to challenge the Kanto League again, so I thought that rather than starting off with just Pikachu again, or just jump straight into the league competition, I'd do this properly, with a full team."

"Really?"

"Yeah."

"So, which Pokémon will you be taking with you?" Gary asked as he let Ash in and started walking with him towards the pokéball storage area of the lab.

"Well, I know that I'm definitely taking Pikachu…"

Gary thought, ' _No surprise there._ '

"…I'll take Sceptile too, along with Garchomp and Infernape…" Ash was quiet for a bit and, when Gary turned to look at him with a raised eyebrow, he let out a sigh and said, "to be completely honest, I don't know who _else_ I _should_ take with me. On my way over I was thinking that I might as well leave the last two open as floating spots." Then an idea struck Ash and he said, "Hey Gary, do you think that I could borrow one of the Lab's vidphones for a…actually…no. Don't bother." Ash saw the clueless expression on Gary's face and said, "Well well well, what do you know. Gary Oak, speechless at last."

Gary sighed and said, "I wouldn't be if you had finished your thought."

Ash sighed and said, "I was going to call Liza over in the Charcific Valley and ask her to send over Charizard for me, but then I remembered that he has a thing for her Charizard, so it's probably better that I just leave them be, especially at this time of year."

Gary thought, ' _At this time of…! Of course! It's still in the Pokémon's breeding season! It is at the end, but how could I have forgotten THAT?!_ ' As they reached the storage room Gary moved to where his Pokémon were stored and said, "So are you telling me that Pokémon can actually fall in love?"

"Yeah," Ash said as he moved his hand over his pokéballs as he searched for the ones that he wanted. "Dawn's Buneary fell hard for Pikachu before we even saw it. It was really kind of embarrassing to tell you the truth." Both Ash and Gary laughed at that as they finished picking which Pokémon they were going to take with them.

As they went back through the lab, Ash asked, "So Gary, who did you get?"

Gary said, "I've got Electivire, Umbreon, Magmar and Scizor."

"Electivire, Umbreon, Magmar and Scizor? Don't gyms have to…you know…have a unifying theme?"

"Trainers with the desire to become Gym Leaders tend to specialise in one type because it allows them to learn to cover their Pokémon's weaknesses and how to enhance their strengths faster than if they were trying to cover multiple Pokémon of different types. It also allows them to investigate and come up with strategies that can be implemented by multiple Pokémon. There is no strict rule that states that a gym must consist of trainers only using one specific type of Pokémon."

"I see," Ash said.

They then reached the foyer and Gary called out, "See ya later gramps!" in a loud voice so that it would cut through the trance that he knew that Professor Oak sometimes entered when he was working on some new theory.

"Yes yes, goodbye Gary," Professor Oak called out irritably, on the cusp of figuring out the reason that Eevee needed an external force to instigate its evolution. Gary and Ash turned to look at the other and let out a choked laugh, their long experience with the Kanto Region's leading researcher already telling them what to expect, and not being disappointed.

When they were outside of the lab's grounds, Ash and Gary drew each a pokéball and said, "Come on out, Garchomp / Skarmory," and tossed them about two metres away from them and caught them after their Pokémon had been released. Seeing Gary's Pokémon, Ash said, "Skarmory? I thought that you were taking Umbreon, Electivire, Magmar and Scizor."

"Yeah, well, I…uhh…kinda forgot about the breeding season lasting a few more weeks," Gary said, scratching the right side of his head, a sheepish expression on his face. Ash raised an almost mocking eyebrow, prompting Gary to say, "What? Even _I_ can make mistakes sometimes. I'm only human after all."

"Really?" Ash asked, "and here I was, theorising that you were from another planet." Gary looked at Ash flatly, before shrugging noncommittally, knowing that some of their past interactions could lead to that theory. Besides, he had held the same theory about Ash for years.

Gary said, "Well, come on, let's get going already," as he leapt onto Skarmory's back and sat down, straddling it so that his shins were resting on the base of its wings. Ash's method though, was vastly different. Garchomp had crouched down on all fours and Ash had leapt onto its back and moved so that he was standing side-on with his knees bent, almost as if he was on a surfboard. Gary looked over at Ash and said, "What the hey-yy?"

Ash looked over to Gary and said, "What? Garchomp's torso is way too thin to be able to ride it as you would a normal, avian, Pokémon. After much trial and error…" Ash mumbled, "and bruises." He then continued "…we found that this is the best way to do it."

"I see," Gary said, getting a good look at Garchomp and realising that Ash really _did_ have a point. "Well, time to get going then."

"Sure," Ash said. "Wanna race?"

"Huh? Against Garchomp? What do you think I am? Crazy? Garchomp can travel at mach speeds. Not only would _I_ lose, _you_ would end up in the hospital."

"Huh," Ash Shrugged. He said, "Sure, whatever makes you feel better," and took off, far slower than Garchomp's top speed so that Gary could keep up with them, despite being well and truly able to withstand Garchomp's top speed.

As they flew, to both trainer's surprise, a flock of Pidgeot took off from the trees and started to fly alongside them. The largest Pidgeot was almost six feet and it flew up to Ash and let out a cry of greeting. Ash nodded and said, "Hey, how are you?" the Pidgeot let out another cry. Ash squinted and hesitantly said, "Pid…geot! You're mine, aren't you?" the Pidgeot let out a cry of excitement at being recognised after all this time and nodded in acknowledgment.

Ash looked around and said, "You really did look after them well, didn't you?" This time, the entire flock let out cries of agreement. Ash grinned, proud of his Pokémon. He sadly said, "Hey, Pidgeot…can you forgive me for not coming back sooner?" Pidgeot let out a cry telling Ash that there was nothing to forgive. Ash smiled happily, a weight finally off of his shoulders and said, "Hey, what do you say about coming on a journey with me again?" Pidgeot let out a cry of joy and looped around Ash and Garchomp.

Pidgeot let out another series of cries and Ash said, "Ye-ess. Of course your mate can come. But you won't be able to be together as constantly as you probably have been." Pidgeot let out a sorrowful cry, but knew that he really didn't need to worry as his trainer would let them spend as much time together as he possibly could. Pidgeot banked away from Ash and Garchomp and flew up to his mate and told her what had happened. She agreed with the plan, having wanted to meet the two-legger that her mate respected so much. Pidgeot then flew to the front of the flock and informed the up-and-comer that was most likely to take his place in a few years. He told it that it was now leader and to do a good job looking after their friends. The new lead Pidgeot let out a powerful cry, informing the rest of the flock of what had happened and banked away from the humans, their Pokémon and the two Pidgeot that had decided to go with one of them.

Within about fifteen minutes, Ash, Gary and their Pokémon came in sight of Viridian City. Gary said, "Well, there it is Ash, Viridian City."

"Yeah," Ash said. "It sure has been a while since I've been here."

"Really?"

"Yeah. The last year or so I've been travelling through some of the regions that only recently opened up."

"Really? I didn't hear about you competing in any of the leagues."

"Yeah, I only competed in a couple of minor tournaments. To keep my skills up, you know?"

"Yeah, the first few matches of that tournament that I was telling you about really put me through the wringer."

"I bet it did. What is it now? Six years since you competed in a league match?"

"Seven."

"Sev…! Really? It's been that long since Johto?"

"Yeah. Sure has. Doesn't seem like it though, does it?"

"No. It's hard to believe."

"So, do you want to have our battle when we land, or…?"

"No. I'll do it the right way and come to you last."

"Heh," Gary said, "then I'll be waiting for you," and he started his descent. He blinked to see Ash going down too, and called over, "Hey Ash, why are _you_ setting down? Aren't you headed to Pewter City?"

"Yeah," Ash said, "but I want Garchomp to be fresh so that I can get my battle underway as soon as I get there, rather than have to wait around for Nurse Joy to give him a once over."

"Fair enough," Gary said as he dismounted. As he did, he thought, _'I doubt Garchomp will need it. I don't think that Ash really thinks it will either, but hey, it doesn't hurt to be careful with these things._ ' Ash slid off of Garchomp's back as it flew so that it was upright before lowering to the ground standing up. As Ash went about returning Garchomp to its pokéball and recapturing his Pidgeot and its mate, Gary said, "You know, the gyms are a lot tougher _now_ than they were when we went 'round Kanto last time."

"Yeah," Ash grinned. "I know, it's great, right? I can't think of anything more exciting right now."

"Heh, I heard that that friend of yours has taken over control of the Pewter City Gym again too."

"You mean Brock?"

"If he's the one that has those Nurse Joy and Officer Jenny issues, then yeah."

"Yeah," Ash said humorously. "That's the one."

"Misty too."

"Well that's no surprise. She does want to became a Water Pokémon Master after all. If she hadn't gotten any stronger than she wouldn't be worthy of her dream. Besides," Ash grinned, "if the gyms _weren't_ any different, then there would be no point in my challenging them again."

"Well, good luck then," Gary said as he returned Skarmory and extended his hand to Ash.

Ash shook Gary's hand and said, "Thanks Gary. You'd better not lose before I get here."

"Heh, sure thing," Gary said as Ash let go of his hand and walked away, waving over his shoulder.

Ash said, "Well, _that's_ going to be something to look forward to." He then turned around and let out his Pidgeot. He said, "Pidgeot, I'm going to need you to take me to Pewter City." Pidgeot turned his back to Ash and let out a cry. As soon as Ash was on its back, Pidgeot took off faster than Garchomp.


End file.
